RESUBELPARA, June 27: Many parts of the village of Bajengdoba, close to the border with Assam as well as nearby Rari, have remained power-less, quite literally, for over a month after the transformers that supplied electricity to these places went kaput and the department refusing to restore connection until at least 60 per cent of the overdue bills were paid.
The current situation has also brought to light the poor bill collection situation where entire villages are punished for the fault of just a few non-paying customers.
As per reports, the village of Kosi Chora under Bajengdoba has a total outstanding due of over Rs 30 lakh while Rari has an overdue bill of just over Rs 11 lakh. The villagers have been asked to cough up Rs 18 lakh and a little over Rs 6 lakh in these two places respectively.
“There are just a few families who have huge pending bills for whom the entire village has to suffer. Some of them have bills over Rs 1 lakh and the department has been punishing us for them not paying. Why do we deserve to be punished when we have been paying regularly?” asked a resident of Kosi Chora.
In Rari, locals said that at least seven families have the bulk of what is due some with dues of over Rs 70,000.
Villagers for now have already pooled in over Rs 3 lakh and submitted it to the MeECL office. However, until the 7-8 families pool in their bit, the situation is not likely to change.
Many villagers were unhappy with the system of billing and delivery of bills. They felt that if bills are overdue by more than 2-3 months, the consumer who has not paid should be acted on and the line disconnected.
“If someone has not paid (the bills), disconnect their lines after serving them notice. How will people all of a sudden be able to pay Rs 18 lakh to the department? Seriously, what were they doing all this time? Do they have to wait until the situation becomes untenable for us all,” asked another resident of Rari.
The situation in Rari and Bajengdoba is not unique.
There have been a number of reports of similar measures being undertaken by the department in all parts of Garo Hills.
The department continues to bide time, hoping for a transformer to go kaput before they arm-twist villagers into coughing up huge sums of money.
Billing and collection, upon which any form of utility company is based, are mandated on the company itself. However, the lack of manpower to even deliver bills has actually led to a situation in which many have to suffer because of the negligence of a few.
“Is it right for the paying consumer to be punished this way for the company’s own incompetence? The authorities in charge of MeECL need a serious rethink as I don’t think their disconnecting our line will stand in Court,” stated another resident of Bajengdoba.
